


You Need Me (but not the way I think)

by QuarterToFour



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, How does Regina need the Queen, Mills Sisters Goodness, Musings Anxiety and Fluff, Regina: Drunk and Pining, Robin is a work in progress, Ruby and The Queen are friends in the EF, Swan Queen - Never happened but Regina wishes it did, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-19
Updated: 2017-07-19
Packaged: 2018-12-04 07:04:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11550024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuarterToFour/pseuds/QuarterToFour
Summary: The Queen is in the Enchanted Forest with Robin Hood V.2 when she is awakened by Regina's magic. Regina needs The Evil Queen again.*This is set after Emma's engagement to Hook and The Evil Queen proofing to the Wish Realm with Robin Hood Round Two. It ignores canon in the sense that 2 months have passed since this time.





	You Need Me (but not the way I think)

**Author's Note:**

> This whole fic is inspired by The Evil Queen's line in the S5 finale: "You need me." I had this thought that wouldn't quit badgering me - if The Evil Queen isn't so evil anymore, does Regina still need her? If yes, how? 
> 
> Swan Queen here is tagged, but only because I ship it so hard it worms into every plot bunny that pops into my head, even if I have to make it an unrequited love. Let's be mature about it, please. 
> 
> I set out to write a quick scene about The Queen and Robin's relationship in the EF before heading straight to Storybrooke, but my hand slipped and I ended up writing 3 pages worth of what I call Robin Round 2, because the idea of how a darker second version of Outlaw Queen would work fascinates me. 
> 
> I do not own OUAT or its characters. This is a non-profit work of fiction.

The Queen wakes beside Robin with a hand to her throat. Something is burning its way down her esophagus and she chokes in alarm until she identifies the pleasant warmth of alcohol as it settles in her stomach.

In tandem with the scotch she now misses fondly, a cocktail of feelings courses through her. The Queen identifies anger and despair as the main ingredients, with a liberal amount of regret for a potent kick.

The feelings are not hers. They are too fuzzy, too far away to be The Queen’s. She puzzles for a minute until she feels magic collide with her own. The sense is foreign, but familiar. Like a long-missing puzzle piece that’s finally slotted home. Regina.

“Robin,” she whispers. “Wake up.” The man groans and turns over. She rolls her eyes. The Forest Lout has the proven ability to sleep through a starving bear tearing through camp. Time to take another tack.

She rolls over his sleeping form and kisses his collarbone. She licks a path up the skin of his throat and then her lips return to ghost a cool breath over it. She sucks on his earlobe for a few seconds and shifts to place gentle kisses on both his eyelids. Robin groans again, but the tone is entirely different from the first.

His eyes open and he gives her a sleepy smile. “Round five?” He asks hopefully. His face is boyishly charming and The Queen laughs as she leans forward and kisses the tip of his nose.

“I’m sorry, Dearest, but you’ll have to go for round five on your own.” She tells him. She props herself up on her elbow. “Regina needs me.” Robin sits up quickly and reaches for his shoes.

“I’ll come with you. Perhaps my skill with a bow can be of use.” He says.

She shakes her head and struggles to keep breathing as the urge to _smash_ something _big_ and _heavy_ at the wall overtakes her. The liquor is getting to Regina and from what The Queen remembers, Rage plus Alcohol equals Destruction for her other half. The Queen was always the one who had retained control under the influence.

“No.” She says. “From what I understand Storybrooke is not in trouble.” She winces and rubs at a phantom pain in her knuckles. Regina had gone for punching the wall instead. “This is more in the range of…” she trails off as she tries to remember what Ruby had called it the last time she’d met with her for lunch.

The idiot pup hadn’t chained herself correctly last full moon and Dorothy had gotten an eyeful of The Wolf. Ruby had done a good deal of berating herself and The Queen had found herself promising to make her the Wolfsbane potion monthly, even though it would cause catastrophic depletion to her herb stocks. At the end of lunch, Ruby had thanked her gratefully for the…

“Girl talk.” The Queen finishes off the sentence. Robin drops the shoes like they bit him and The Queen chuckles. “You suddenly have a changed perspective on high tailing it out of here.”

“I imagine you’d deal with girl talk a lot better than I.” He says dryly. “Do you know what’s wrong?”

“Something to do with Emma.” She answers. She struggles to keep the wistful tone from her voice. It was never her who had the chance with Emma, and green really is not her color.

“So Regina’s finally stopped living in denial?” Robin asks as he settles back on the bed. The Queen waves a hand and two dresses appear.

“Seems like a little too late.” She says. Best not to tell him that the denial part ended in Neverland, for both Regina and The Queen. It was the courage part that had proved an issue for Regina. She indicates the dresses and asks, “which one of these says Reformed Evil Queen?”

He points at the blue one. It’s design is simple and elegant. The only Evil undertone is the way the back dips gracefully towards scandalous. The Queen waves a hand and dresses herself. Robin’s eyes light up, so she rewards him with a little twirl and stops front of her vanity. Her diamond drop earrings with the emerald accents would do nicely for this dress. She’s fastening the second earring when Robin comes up behind her in the mirror.

“I’ll miss you.” Robin breathes in her ear. She leans up and presses a kiss to his jaw, feeling a pang at her earlier yearning for her non existent chance at Emma. She is lucky. Lucky to have this second chance at her second love.

“I’ll miss you too” she says. She doesn’t know if it’s the honest truth. She hopes it is.

Robin presses a kiss to the top of her head and The Queen lets herself relax into his chest. The image they form is a study of contrasts. Light and dark, big and small, sandpaper and silk. Their differences make something beautiful together in the mirror, and she closes her eyes and hopes that she can do right by this second chance Regina has given her.

It’s not like Robin is the one who makes it difficult.

She passes him a diamond choker. “Clasp this for me?” She asks. He takes the choker and wraps it around her neck. She shivers when he pauses to press his lips to the junction between her neck and shoulder.

This relationship is new, and she’s been relying on the light Regina had flooded her heart with to walk it through all the awkward beginning stages while dragging her baggage behind her. It’s been working, mostly.

She calls him Dearest now.

She and Robin have discussed the consequences of what is, essentially, building a home out of the foundation their alternate selves had laid down. They both agreed to forget who came before, but The Queen has memories of another Robin, while this Robin has no memory of Regina.

She quashes the little voice that whispers, _and Emma. Don’t forget_ _Emma_. She doesn’t want to remember how it was Emma who woke her with a chainsaw’s kiss to her apple tree. Doesn’t want to remember how after 28 years at the fore, Regina had faded into a corner to admire Emma’s tensed abs and biceps, while The Queen had introduced herself to Emma in a spitting rage.

It was the way Emma had refused to yield that lingered with Regina and The Queen. It had prompted their hatred, their admiration, and then their love. By the time they’d both been willing to admit said love, Emma was with Hook.

She needs to forget. She will forget. They had both let the first Robin replace Emma. When he’d been killed by Hades, they’d both mourned, but The Queen had never really taken to Robin the way Regina had. At best, she appreciated his willingness to accept her as a part of Regina. At worst, well…he smelled of forest and to a queen that was a deal breaker right there.

This Robin though, is darker than the other. Less concerned with his honor and his code, and more concerned with where and with whom he sleeps. She supposes no Marian, and no Roland saw to that. It also helps that his avoidance of the trees after Marian died gave him a healthy appreciation for the comforts of indoor living. So they stay in her palace, which smells like jasmine and wisteria, and not in a cramped tent.

He is still gentle, still kind, but harder, gruffer. More decisive and less apologetic than the first Robin had been. It makes him see The Queen as whole, not just a part, and for that alone, she could love him. He also gives better orgasms, but The Queen suspects that might be because they don’t come along with guilt and infidelity.

Her musings are interrupted by the click of a clasp and Robin’s voice. “I love you.” He whispers into The Queen’s hair. She freezes his arms and meets his eyes in the mirror. He stares back. The Queen’s heart speeds up, pumping violently. She can’t do this now. Can’t say it back. She hates herself a little for it, but his quiet admission is too quick, too soon. She hasn’t decided if she’s really in love him yet, and with Regina pulsing misery, regret and need through this new link, she doesn’t have the time to deliberate properly.

He smooths her hair a little. “You don’t need to say anything back.” He says. “Not today.” Relief floods her. She doesn’t have to answer now, and he will say it again. Her lack of an answer now doesn’t mean he’ll leave. She is lucky. Luckier than she deserves.

She twists to face him. “Someday I will.” She tells him. His face falls into an expression of befuddlement. It’s so what she hated about the first Robin, that she rolls her eyes and presses a kiss to his mouth. “Love you, you bemused bear. “ she pulls back a bit and holds his face in her hands. “Someday, I’ll love you back.” His face clears and he nods.

“Then I’ll keep asking if it’s someday.” He says. “Till then I’ll be content to love you,” He kisses her lips, “and kiss you”-

-“and fuck me.” The Queen finishes for him with a seductive smirk as his hand skitters low on the bare skin of her back.

He hums in agreement and she buries her face in his chest and laughs. “I really must go, Dearest” she says. The words are a bit muffled against him, but he steps back and raises an hand to stroke her cheek.

He studies her for a moment and then glances toward the mirror. She’s sure the view of her back it reflects is striking, but she keeps her eyes glued to his face. His eyes return to hers, and they gleam with admiration and desire and glint with something else she can’t quite name. “You look beautiful” he tells her. “Safe travels, My Queen.”

“Thank you, Dearest.” She says. She kisses him one more time and poofs away in a cloud of purple smoke. Time to see why Regina needs The Evil Queen this time.

* * *

 

  
The Queen appears in a cloud of purple smoke just outside Regina’s office building. She can feel Regina’s emotional state like a suffocating, wet blanket and her magic boils within in response. So this unexpected bond strengthens according to proximity. Very interesting.

She hurries inside. 

**Author's Note:**

> Next up: Regina is a belligerent, unmanageable drunk and The Queen calls in back up.


End file.
